


knocking on the red door

by charjace



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018)
Genre: Child Death, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Poisoning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 19:15:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16750006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charjace/pseuds/charjace
Summary: just.. a... few... luke DIES au's. i'm sorry





	1. 6 years old and potential lost

his mother was home, much sooner then he thought but he didn’t mind. he got to see her again because there she was, standing in the doorway with a tray for a tea party. he had been sleeping on the floor as abigail took his bed. his friend being comfortable over him was important to him. he was okay with it, and his mother there made him feel - happy. something felt a bit off, but he was six years old and doesn’t understand.

so, he happily follows his mother along with nell and abigail, and a miracle happened; the red room was open. it was open and they were going to have a late night tea party, things were going great until he found himself a little eager to drink the tea. it was a little hot as the liquid went down his throat. his mother was talking about waking them up, waking them up from what? they were awake and - there was a tight burning sensation bubbling it’s way up his throat. it was hurting and he coughing out a white substance. hands going up to grab at his throat like that would help, he could see his sister put her own hand to her throat - like it hurt her too, but she didn’t have foam coming out of her mouth. their mother looked calm but abigail ran.

luke never blamed abigail for running, she was scared, they all were. she was brave for running.

it went dark for a while, but then, he was standing back in the room but the tea set was trashed, his mother laying on the floor. he hears nellie crying and goes to run to her but, it’s theo behind her as she rushes her into the car. he see’s shirley get in the car too he’s not sure how much time passed but his mother wakes up and see’s a form on the ground, his form, but how could that be - he was right here.

‘ mum ’ he says and she looks up, a watery smile spread across her lips as she lifts a hand towards him.

‘ you’re awake now, ’ her voice quiet and a mix of emotions in it. he doesn’t get what she means by it, but she then goes out of the room and tries to find her other children, and luke goes into his and nell’s room before going to steve’s only to see him being carried out by their father, with their mother trying to go after them. he watches with his mother as they leave, there is some women with them, telling her that his father is taking them away, into the dark, into the night.

he loses her for a moment. but then she is up there by the staircase and in a matter of seconds, on the floor. blood pouring out of her head. then he see’s mrs dudley walk in, worry on her face before she is running up the stairs, those winding stairs. that red room was still open, just a bit and dare he say it, let’s a tear fall down her face upon seeing him laying on the floor.

a scream drew their attention away, and he sees his mother being held by his father.

the rest of the crain siblings were sitting on the beds in a motel their room that their father left them in, ‘where’s mum?’ steve asked, and shirley asks about luke. nell can’t get anything out apart of broken sobs and her hand coming up to her throat. she feels so cold, so her siblings climb into bed and hold on tight to her as she cries herself to sleep. they’re all scared for their mother and their brother.

for years, no one steps foot into the house and luke is scared so he stays as close as he can to his mother, but the other woman, poppy, she loved to visit but he didn’t like her, so he would try and find his treehouse - but he never does, so he just goes to his old room. counting to seven until his mother finds him again, with no poppy.

it took him a a few more years before he started to see that the house was doing something to his mother, that poppy was. she was becoming someone luke didn’t recognise, yet did at the same time. her love for him was so big and he could feel it. he would believe it when she told him - but, there are times she disappears and she tells him that his siblings are doing well. shirley got married. steve wrote a book. theo was becoming a doctor, nell was doing well for herself - but, they’re still in the dark.

how could they be in the dark if they’re happy, if they’re doing well. the bowler hat ghost - he introduced himself as william, he let luke wear his hat sometimes, and it makes him smile. but, then there was one night, and someone entered the house, like truly entered the house. it took him a few seconds, but he recognised the new comer as nell. he would know his twin sister anywhere. she was older, but that was his sister.

he wants to talk to her, to see her - but something is stopping him so all he is left to do is watch as his sister plays out some fantasy that only she can see and their mother can interact with.

coming down the stairs, nell sees her older siblings smiling at her in their bridesmaid’s dresses and steve in his tux. the words they speak, they’re words she wants to her; but that doesn’t register as wrong in her mind. her mother before her next to her father, and her eyes start to tear up. this was how her wedding should have been like. they separate and a man she, for a split second doesn’t recognise before it hits her that it’s luke, is behind them. he is smiling at her, that small smile that she loved.

‘ luke ’ voice so broken, as she looks at her twin brother standing before her.

‘ i was always here nellie, always for you. i would never leave you ’ he speaks and she soaks it in before he takes a step aside and there is arthur and she feels the whimpered sob that leaves her throat before she hears it.

luke can’t do anything because he doesn’t understand what’s going on, he’s in the middle of the staircase trying to get nellie away from the ledge, because he just knows that she shouldn’t be near it. he doesn’t know why, just that she needs to get away from it. but their mother is there, and her words are faint to his ears.

the next things he see’s is nell’s body hanging from the top of the staircase, her neck bent at an unusual angle and that is when it hits him, ‘ nell is bent neck lady ’, as he exclaims those words he see’s his siblings, but they’re older and they’re asleep. he manages to linger a bit longer with steve.

‘ luke ‘ he hears steve’s voice say, almost like he couldn’t believe it before luke disappears and is in the front seat of a car, and is that his dad.

‘ nell is the bent neck lady. dad… can you hear me? ’ luke ends up back in the house as his father turns to look at him.


	2. 30 years old and the door opens

he had taken shirley’s money. her last hand out that she was going to give, he probably shouldn’t have gotten high before nell’s wedding, but the nightmares were too much and he couldn’t deal with them anymore. they’re the reason he get’s high to drown them out. to drown out the images of his mother slamming against a wall, of abigail foaming at the mouth, of the monster in the cellar, of the bowler hat man. that was way he got high; but it’s not something he’s told his siblings because little luke’s always had a wild imagination. they’re just nightmares, the things he knows his family to have told him when he was a kid.

shirley’s money was spent on a ride to mass ave, where he got some smack before he decided that he needed to face his fears. if he faced his hears maybe he could get clean, to not be a disappointment anymore. but where do his fears come from… they come from hill house. so, he manages to get some money for a cab to get him as close as it would take him to that hell of a house.

it was dark when he arrived there, it was just as scary as it was when he was a kid. he didn’t like the feeling the house gave him. he was starting to shake, he hasn’t shot up in a long while. he was starting to withdraw but he needed to do this. and to do this without a shot of heroin. walking up, he could have swore the lights were on and were a shade of red.

walking into the house, it was like out of those horror movies. cobwebs and dust everywhere, but other then that, it was just how they had left it that night. that night that scared him. now, he’s 30 years old, he missed his sister’s wedding - the most important one, his twin’s. he missed it because he couldn’t face his fears, so… here he is, inside the place that started it all.

but then he sees someone at the foot of the stars, a little girl in blue dress. he knows that blue dress and he knows that little girl. he starts to count to seven, he’s been repeating it in his head but now he’s doing it out loud.

‘abigail?’ his voice weak due to withdrawl and seeing his old friend, she says after he feels calm enough inside.

she looks behind her, and luke follows her gaze and see’s his mother and he can’t help tear up at seeing her. ‘ you’re home my love’ he hears his mother speak, a look of worry etched upon her features and her hand caresses his cheek. ‘are you okay?’

he shakes his head, he wasn’t. he was filled with guilt for not being able to be there for his sister’s wedding, fear of being back in this house. sadness pilling on upon seeing his mother and abigail. and going through withdrawl isn’t helping him at all. ‘mum, i’m sorry.’

‘don’t you apologise. the world was cruel to you’ she spoke and tears fell down his face.

there was so many things he wanted to apologise for, and many he wants to apologise to. but, she disappears and so does abigail. another woman walks up to him, and she has a worried look upon her face, and she reaches a hand out to him; in the same movement as his mother. ‘are you having a bad dream? a really, really bad dream?’

he gives a small nod of his head, this all was some fucking bad dream to him. the whole of his life, like some kind of horror. he watches as the woman gives him a smile, her fingers ghosting over the pocket that held his tools, and she is guiding him towards the kitchen.

‘we’ll wake up, no more screaming meemies’ she says and the rest feels like a blur, and then he couldn’t breathe.

it took him a few minutes to process his death, and when it hit him all he could think about was nell, and how she would feel. their twin things was a powerful thing. thinking of his sister, he finds himself in the corner of a room, and there was his sister panicking in her bed as her husband, arthur, tried to calm her down from it. when his sister sits up, she looks right at him and her hand goes to her mouth.

‘i’m sorry nellie. i’m so sorry. i should have been better,’ he says, and watches as she scrambles for her phone. he knows she’s trying to call him but watches as her face breaks down as she can’t get a hold of him.

he hates it, because there was no real sense of time now that he was dead. he spends his time, trying to look over his siblings, especially nell. he sees when the bent neck lady comes back, but there isn’t anything he can do. not now, and not when she arrives in the house, it’s like the house is holding him back and like it had a strong hold on his sister.

**Author's Note:**

> i did these for my rp blog, but HERE, you can suffer with me


End file.
